


Hush

by remylebae



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 01:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20788580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remylebae/pseuds/remylebae
Summary: Gilbert is a librarian at his university, working on his masters in library sciences.  While working a late night, a girl with orange hair and far too many books comes up to his desk, attempting to argue her way into breaking a few rules.  Gilbert's not so sure he can let her get away with that.





	Hush

Gilbert sat at the front desk on the first floor of his university’s library, bored out of his mind. He was on shift until four a.m., the library’s closing time, and currently, he still had four hours left until he could leave. He sighed, leaning back in his chair. It was a slow night, with only a few people spread out at desks and tables, studying and working on assignments. He wished he could be working on homework; he was still working on getting his masters in library sciences, and he had pages and pages of readings to do. Normally he brought some with him to study while working the front desk, but he’d left his bag in his car, and then it had begun to storm…

He spun around in his chair, allowing his eyes to go unfocused as the room around him blurred. In his cone of vision, he saw books and shelves and computers and printers all merging together, shades of off-white, grays and blacks intercepting here and there. He kicked off from the floor, spinning his chair around a few times more. White, white, black, white, gray, white, beige, white, orange…

Orange?

Gilbert dropped his feet down, bringing his chair to an abrupt halt. Before him stood a pale-skinned, freckled-face girl with orange hair; she was watching him with raised eyebrows and a poorly hidden smirk. He righted himself, unable to fight the blush spreading up the back of his neck to his cheeks. He coughed, embarrassed. “How can I help you?”

He realized, as she bent down, that she had a large stack of books beside her, resting next to a large backpack that she had just set down on the floor. He counted them quickly- thirteen. Slowly, she began stacking them on top of the desk, speaking as she picked books up from the ground. “I totally lost track of time- I meant to be home two hours ago, I have a ton of papers to work on, but then I found that you had an extensive collection of feminist and gender theory on all of my favorite 19th-century novelists and I just got lost in them!”

Gilbert nodded; he wasn’t much to make heavy conversation with the patrons of the library, especially at this time of night. He gestured for her library card and she handed it his way; he scanned it then began the process of checking her stack of books out. “Is this for a paper, then?”

Midterms were coming up shortly, after all. There were always those professors who required fifteen plus sources for their papers, and seeing someone else’s stack of books always filled him with a sense of dread, even if he himself didn’t have an assignment of that nature to complete.

To his surprise, the girl- _Anne_, he read off her card- was shaking her head. “Oh no, though that would be a pretty good idea, wouldn’t it? Especially since I’m already checking out and reading these books. Now why didn’t _I_ think of that?” She laughed, and Gilbert found himself struggling to hide the surprise from his expression. “No, no, these are just for me. Don’t you just love when you find a new topic or field of research to explore that perfectly fits your interests? Just something new to dig right into? The library here is absolutely wonderful; it’s one of the reasons why I chose this university in the first place! What about you, why are _you_ here?”

Gilbert opened his mouth to respond, despite not having an answer ready, because honestly, how could one answer _that_ without ruining the mood? Especially when, with where he was at in his graduate program, he was deep in a love-hate relationship with reading for pleasure. When could one even find the time anymore? And how did this woman before him have time to read _thirteen_ different books for fun? _Especially_ with them being academic texts?

Before he could get a word out, his computer beeped; he turned his head, facing his screen with his lips still parted, reading over the notification on the screen, one he hadn’t seen before. He turned back to face her. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid you’ve hit your limit.”

She blinked, a frown forming. “Have I? What’s the check-out limit?”

“Fifty.”

Her frown deepened. “Well, can’t you just… make an exception? I need all of these.”

Gilbert stared at her, still holding one of her books in his hand. It was too late for this shit. “I- what?”

“All of these are incredibly interesting,” she said slowly. “And I need all of them in order to gain different perspectives on 19th-century novelists and the gender roles throughout; I’d hate to lack in a specific area, a specific argument! All writers have biases and are making an argument in their writings, so I always try and make sure that I read from multiple sides and perspectives. Can’t you just let me... take a few extra?”

“That’s… not how this works.” Gilbert’s shoulders slouched; his patience was wearing thin, and the time of night was only adding to how draining this conversation was. “I think that would just get me in trouble.”

Before him, this _Anne_ sighed; Gilbert wondered how he hadn’t seen her before, considering how many books she had checked out. Pure luck, he supposed. “I guess I should have expected this. Oh, well. At least I was able to check out some of them.” She bent down and opened up her backpack, pulling out two folded-up tote bags that she began to fill. Once full, she put her backpack on her back, tote bags on her shoulders, then reached out to grab the remaining books that she hadn’t been able to check out. She straightened. “I’ll go put these last four back.”

As she walked away, Gilbert quickly called out, “Don’t put them away! Put them on one of the carts so we can deal with them!”

He watched as she waved in his direction, notifying that she had heard him, and then she was out of sight, doing who knew what.

Gilbert exhaled heavily, leaning back in his seat as he began to rub his temple rhythmically. _Just four more hours_…, he thought to himself, closing his eyes for a minute. There was a reason he couldn’t work in retail; really, he didn’t think he could handle being bright and friendly while stopping customers from burning down a store.

At least this Anne person seemed apologetic. It was nice of her to put the books back, even though he was pretty certain she’d do it wrong. He sat up again, turning to face his screen; hopefully, the rest of the evening would be much more low-key.

\-----

Thirty minutes later, Gilbert was wrapped up in an email he was busy crafting for an event happening in the library the following week. Someone walked past; he murmured a goodbye without looking up from his screen, frowning at what he’d written so far; he was using too many exclamation points, and it all seemed incredibly fake in tone, too… chirpy. It didn’t really seem to fit who he was.

Then the security scanner by the door beeped.

Gilbert looked up quickly; before him, with half her body out the door and a sheepish expression plastered on her face, was Anne. He gestured for her to come to the desk, and slowly, she came back inside. “I must have missed one when I was checking them in. Go ahead and stack them all on the desk again.”

Silently, she did as he asked, reloading her books into her tote bags once he had finished, then went to leave once more.

The scanner beeped _again_.

Now, Gilbert was beginning to feel just a tad bit suspicious. He stood from his seat, frowning. “Could you open your backpack, please?”

Begrudgingly, she moved back towards his desk and opened her bag. He glanced inside; resting on top of everything were the four books that were over her limit. He stared down into the bag for another moment, then looked her in the eye; at least she had the sense to look embarrassed. “So… you’re stealing our books.”

“No! No, that’s not it at all! I’ll bring them back! I’m just borrowing them!”

“Yeah, you see, I work for a library, I know how the borrowing process works, and this…” he paused, pointing down at her bag, “This isn’t it.”

She sighed, dropping her head. “I’m very trustworthy- you would have gotten them back in a week. I just _really_ wanted to read these last four books, uh-”

She searched his chest for a name tag. “Gilbert,” he supplied.

“Gilbert,” she repeated, locking eyes with him for a moment. “I’m Anne.”

They stood like that for a moment; she seemed like a nice enough person, and he genuinely found himself believing that, were he to let her take them, that she’d return these “borrowed” books without any damage. Still, he couldn’t let her do that. “You can’t take the books.”

She nodded, eyes trailing down to her bag. He couldn’t believe someone would ever possibly be this upset over a few extra books, especially considering the fact that she already had _so many_ checked out. Maybe it was her sad expression, or maybe it was the fact that, despite how exhausted he was, he knew that were this a different time of day, he’d find this amusing in a charming sort of way, but he found himself saying, “What if you checked them out on my card?”

Her face head snapped up, eyes wide, and quickly a grin overtook her expression. “You mean it? I- I couldn’t- you truly mean it?”

_Well, now that I’ve been given a chance to reconsider_… He nodded. “Just, you know, don’t lose the books and make me pay the fees. Then we’ll have issues.”

She quickly began to pull the books from her bag for him to check out as he pulled out his own library card from his wallet, sitting back down at the desk. As he scanned in the fourth book, she asked, “Can I give you my number?”

He looked up at her, blinking; feeling incredibly confused, he replied, “I- uh. You want my number? For… a date?”

Her eyes went wide. “No! No, not like that! It’s so you can contact me, in the very very _very_ low chance that something goes wrong with the books and you need to get me to pay a fine or something of that sort.”

“Ohhhh. Got it. Right, of course.” He blushed staring down at the books once more. What an absolute idiot he was for assuming. Why on Earth would she ask him on a date now, after catching her trying to sneak books out? “Well anyway, here you go-”

“Although, now that you’ve mentioned it, would you? Want to get coffee, I mean.”

Gilbert stared at her, mouth agape. What. Was._ Happening?!_ “I- you- Anne, you just tried to steal books! I….”

He trailed off, noticing the blush that was taking over her features, one quite similar to his own. He looked her over, truly this time; he supposed it wouldn’t be the _worst_ idea. Besides, either this would end horribly and he’d get a great story out of it, or it would be the start to a wonderful relationship, and he’d get a great story out of it.

Perhaps it was the fact that it was the middle of the night, but Gilbert found himself chuckling. “You know what? Sure. Coffee would be great.”

She smiled radiantly, and he couldn’t help but return it. Quickly, she leaned down and pulled out a sheet of paper from her bag, scribbling her number down. She passed it to him quickly; she had a nervous energy about her, and Gilbert found that that was only making him like her more.

“I can’t wait,” she said as she filled her bag with the four books he had checked out for her, zipping it closed. Her face snapped up quickly. “And I swear, nothing will _ever_ happen to these books. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. You won’t regret it.”

He smirked. “I’m sure I won’t.”

And he meant it.

**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea and had to get it out, especially with all this wonderful new content giving me the inspiration and energy to write more AWAE fic again :) Thanks as always to Gus for editing and being a sounding board for my ideas. I hope you enjoyed, please leave a comment with your thoughts!


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